The Stillest Still Life

Hello everybody! I have decided to keep a winter sketchbook since most of my friends need to do it for portfolio review. I found an old sketchbook from high school with some terrible drawings and bad poetry in it, so I've been painting over the old pages and generally trying to make it more acceptable. Here is a thing that I am proud of!

Stay warm,

Maaike

Pinecones Forever

Recently I stayed up all night to do a digital pinecone painting. He ended up not even looking at them in class (yet)... but the personal satisfaction is pretty great. Here is my result:

A few people have been asking me about how to digital paint, and even though I'm pretty new at it, I hope that this step-by-step breakdown of the whole thing might be helpful? I mainly just worked at 100% and did it scale by scale, using the values I had already laid in a /really rough/ paint sketch. Kind of like real paint, except you can hit undo forever. :)  

Master Copyin'

Boy oh man, we had to do some black and white master copy thumbnails and sketches for my class. It's only supposed to take a few minutes, but that's way too hard for me.

Here are the thumbnails:

And the more developed sketches:

After toiling over these I do think I have a better grasp of tone and shape in landscapes. Hurrah! I'm also learning a lot about digital paint. I have very little experience with digital painting, but I have nearly 10 years of digital cartooning under my belt. It's definitely helping. :) Stay tuned for more! I want to scan in my acrylic pinecone painting, but my teacher still has them.

-- Maaike

Spring 2013 Portfolio!

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've updated. This was the portfolio I submitted to my Animation/Illustration program this past spring. :) I also had to complete a sketchbook over the summer to secure my place in the program. Most of my summer was spent sleeping, and waking up occasionally to draw and work. 

I will make sure to post some of my favorite sketchbook pages soon! For now, here's the portfolio that got me in.